fuel baffle question

[MoSammy78]

Pulled my fuel baffle this morning. Gauge stopped last season. I read quite a bit here about potential failure points and how to repair them.

I found that my float had been breached by the fuel- I have ordered a new one. My question is... how can I test to see if the fuse is good/blown? I was about to just dig into it... but surely there's a non-invasive test. Question 2.... if the fuse IS intact, should I just go ahead and cut/solder/plastiweld and call it a day? Preventive maintenence?

Thanks, all!

 

[mikidymac]

Check resistance on the two wires. It should change as you turn it upside down and right side up and the float travels back and forth.

If it just tests open the F1 fuse is blown.

 

[MoSammy78]

Well, turns out blown F1 and a non-floating float. I have cut, soldered and re-welded the baffle back together- and checked for resistance with the old float. Good to go. I have read a great many posts about replacing the fuse... what opinions do you folks have? Inline fuse upstream of the baffle or nah.

 

[MoSammy78]

Most of the videos and posts that I've seen specify use of a plastic-weld tip on soldering iron. My local big box hardware store didn't have tips available and I didn't want or need to buy a new soldering iron... so I used a cheapo putty knife heated by propane torch to melt/smudge/smooth the plastic and zipties. Easy Peasy.

I cut the baffle open with a dremmel tool... and in hindsight would have been better off just heating the putty knife and melting through the plastic. Would have been MUCH cleaner.